seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia
seen from Russia
seen from Canada
seen from South Africa
seen from Canada
seen from Netherlands
seen from Australia
seen from Japan
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Japan
seen from Peru
seen from Netherlands
seen from United Kingdom
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
Attention, rare sightings of the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork 🦩 🖤
“From the back, Vetinari looked like a carnivorous flamingo.” - Men at Arms
“Thin, pale, and clad all in dusty black, the Patrician always put Ridcully in mind of a predatory flamingo, if you could find a flamingo that was black and had the patience of a rock.” - Reaper Man
Genuinely laughed out loud when I read this… in the pin-drop silent library where I work…
I'm being completely serious when I say Granny Weatherwax's "What about the fire?" speech from Lords and Ladies has done more to help me recontextualize and manage my anxiety than like 5 years of therapy did
Jingo Terry Pratchett
He met young Sam coming the other way as he headed for the cells. The boy's face was white in the gloom.
"Found anyone?" said Vimes.
"Oh, sarge..."
"Yes?"
"Oh, sarge...sarge..." Tears were running down the lance-constable's face.
Vimes reached out and steadied himself. Sam felt as though there were no bones left in his body. He was trembling.
"There's a woman in the last cell, and she...sarge...oh, sarge..."
"Try taking deep breaths," said Vimes. "Not that this air is fit to breathe."
"And there's a room right at the end, sarge...oh, sarge...Nancyball fainted again, sarge..."
"You didn't," said Vimes, patting him gently on the back.
"But there's –"
"Let's rescue what we can, shall we, lad?"
"But we were on the hurry-up wagon, sarge!"
"What?" said Vimes, and then it dawned. Oh yes...
"But we didn't hand anyone over, lad," he said. "Remember?"
"But I've been on it before, sarge! All the lads have! We just handed people over and went back to the Watch House for cocoa, sarge!"
"Well, you'd had orders..." said Vimes, for what good that did.
"We didn't know!"
Not exactly, thought Vimes. We didn't ask. We just shut out minds to it. People went in through the front door and some of the poor devils came out through the secret door, not always in one box.
They hadn't measured up.
Nor did we.
Terry Pratchett, Night Watch
I know a lot of people talk about the humour of STP and the Discworld novels in particular, but there's something to be said about the drama of his writing, and the way he conveyed serious dramatic concepts in a funny way that also felt so natural you don't even question it and also sets out the kind of universe you're dealing with...
I mean well within the first 50 or so pages of The Colour of Magic you have lines like:
"Thunder rolled. It rolled a six." And;
"If complete and utter chaos was lightning, he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All Gods are bastards'.
"Sam Vimes did not live in the same world as Moist von Lipwig. Did the man ever laugh? he wondered-the commander must have done something funny at some time. Probably he'd laughed at somebody falling over a cliff or suchlike."
-Sir Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam
